316 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



stripped a headed lettuce of its leaves ; when, 

 the king observing that the plant was not so 

 beautiful as when it had all its leaves, " It is 

 the same with our family," replied the prin- 

 cess, " since you have cut off a precious shoot." 

 This indiscreet allusion cost her her own life. 

 Pliny tells us, that the ancient Romans 

 knew but one kind of lettuce, which was a 

 black variety, that yielded a great quantity 

 of milky juice which caused sleep, therefore 

 it was called Lactuca. 



It is reported, adds this author, that An- 

 tonius Musa, a physician, cured the emperor 

 Augustus Caesar of a dangerous disease by 

 means of the lettuce. Other authors notice 

 that Augustus was eased of the violence of 

 his disease by the use of this plant ; which 

 circumstance seems to have brought the let- 

 tuce into esteem at Rome ; as Pliny says, 

 after that time there was no doubt about 

 eating them, and men began to devise means 

 of growing them at all seasons of the year, 

 and even preserving them, for they were used 

 in pottage as well as in salads. 

 Columella notices the qualities of this plant, 



" And now let lettuce, with its healthful sleep, 

 Make haste, which of a tedious long disease 

 The painful loathings cures." 



